The Inland Empire is stressed out, according to a study by Sperling’s Best Places and another by Forbes. But the two studies don’t agree on how stressed out.

The Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area ranks as the 7th-most stressful place to live in the United States, and the most stressful part of Southern California, according to the Sperling report.

That study analyzed the 50 largest cities in the country, based on unemployment and suicide rates, commute times, days per month with poor mental health as reported in a Centers for Disease Control survey, proper rest, alcohol use, violent crime rate, property crime rate and finally, number of cloudy days per year.

Based on those factors, the most stressed-out city in the nation is Tampa, Fla. The most chill (in more ways than one) is Minneapolis.

Falling right in the middle is the largest city in Texas, Houston, which comes in at 26th, far more relaxed than Riverside, according to Sperling’s number crunchers.

Not so fast, says Forbes. In their study, Los Angeles ranks No. 1 and Houston comes in at No. 11. Riverside is actually less stressed than either of those cities, coming in at No. 14 in the Forbes study, which naturally looked at other factors in calculating stress levels. The Big Apple, naturally, was No. 2.

Forbes’ calculations included air quality, cost of living, hours spent at work and the price of housing in the mix.

Of course, weighing conflicting reports on the regions’ stress levels can be downright stressful, and neither study included that factor.

Regardless of which report you put more stock in, even if you’re not feeling the stress, your friends and neighbors probably are. So perhaps instead of hosting a barbecue that will only add to the air pollution, you might want to organize a meditation party.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.